Wednesday, May 12, 2021

April Poetry Challenge 2021: Day Twelve

 


Day 12 Prompt: Six Words (convict, great, play, race, season, and voice)

Form: Sestina


“Messed up the Lines”


The gavel came down hard. He was convicted

of all the things he did, small and great.

He was silent, he had no lines for this play.

He was too tired from the race

he had been running for 200 seasons.

He only wished he could hear her voice 


one last time. His name plus her voice 

arrested his heart. Love convicted

him during a winter season

many years ago. She lead him to great

heights on paths they walked while others raced 

by them. Building a new stage, they wrote a new play.


A supporting cast ad-libbed lines during the play, 

but moved on as they found their own voice. 

Time kept the pace for the race

they ran together. Her love convicted 

his heart with joy, but all the great 

stories have a dark season.


It wasn’t Love’s fault, new seasons 

are built from the past, the play

between memories and questions are great 

forces that bellow a devastating voice

that splinters stages. The conviction 

of not enough led him on a spirit filled race. 


There is no string at the end of a race 

to empty the bottles with icons of seasons 

on the label. No conviction

of the soul can out play 

the way shot glasses change a man’s voice. 

He learned that all can fall from great


heights. How he missed the great

room they would sit in after a day’s race.

Her hands warm in his, her voice 

seductive like a spring season.

They would watch life play 

out before them. Together convicted.


He hangs his head, convicted of great

and small lines in a play he would race 

back to the debut season to hear her voice.

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